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Description: A synthetic narcotic, fentanyl has been detected in an increasing number of illicit drug overdose deaths in Metro Vancouver. Many of the people who died were recreational and/or occasional users and don’t appear to have known they were ingesting fentanyl, as it is easily hidden in other drugs.

But a trial for the cops, which had been due to start in September 2013, will now likely be delayed

RCMP investigating the Surrey Six Massacre in October 2007 search grounds nearby. Four Mounties facing a series of charges related to their work on the Surrey Six murder trial have finally retained lawyers after months of wrangling with the RCMP over legal funding.

Photograph by: Ian Smith
, Vancouver Sun files

METRO VANCOUVER -- Four Mounties facing a series of charges related to their work on the Surrey Six murder trial have finally retained lawyers after months of wrangling with the RCMP over legal funding.

But a trial for the cops, which had been due to start in September 2013, will now likely be delayed, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman heard Thursday.

At a hearing last October, Silverman asked that his concerns about the funding issue be passed on to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, “with the suggestion that a decision would help us to move this process along.”

“Of course, I am not trying to convey what the decision should be — merely that a decision would help,” Silverman said at the time.

But he also said that “the trial date is already in jeopardy.”

All four officers were originally told their legal expenses would be covered by the force. But the situation changed last June, when they were told they wouldn’t get any additional funding for the case.

The Mounties were charged in 2011 after an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into allegations that Brassington had an affair with a potential witness.

Brassington is facing seven charges, including obstruction of justice, breach of trust, fraud and compromising the safety of a witness. Attew, his supervisor during the Surrey Six investigation, faces six counts, including breach of trust, fraud and obstruction of justice.

Johnston and Michaud have been charged with breach of trust, obstruction of justice and misleading the OPP investigators who were looking into the allegations against Brassington.

RCMP investigating the Surrey Six Massacre in October 2007 search grounds nearby. Four Mounties facing a series of charges related to their work on the Surrey Six murder trial have finally retained lawyers after months of wrangling with the RCMP over legal funding.